CWGT3
Season three of the Crapwagon.com Grand Touring World Offline Series commenced in Louisville, Kentucky on February 3, 2005 with the UPS Prequalifying Heats for the Dixieanna Winter Enduro, and was originally scheduled to end at the Nurburgring on March 19 with the 24 Hours - which ended with Stalker and ABES tied for the standings lead. However, due to the new McBVision broadcast contract, the championship-deciding sudden death format was extended into a "first to pass whoever was tied for first place after the Ring" system, which allowed SpeedQueen to sneak by the original contenders - and McB - for her only CWGT title, with a win at the 51st event of the year in Brno, Czech Republic around April 7, 2005. CWGT3 marked the beginning of the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) era in the virtual sportscar series, a massive upgrade in power and grip over the GTX/extended Trans-Am vehicles that had been in use since the predecessor OSCRA GT series in fall 2004. The 24 Heures du Spa-Francorchamps was taken by RobGuru, while ABES finally broke through and won LeMans after going winless his first 77 career races. Stalker notably won the events at Louisville and Bowman Gray, thus earning a reputation as the short track queen of the series. Paper won the 24h-rennen Nurburgring presented by Jolt Cola, the first ever at Nordscheliefe to make the full scheduled distance! __TOC__ Top Stories The biggest news, as noted, was the formula switch between seasons 2 and 3. With that in mind, the new manufacturers were unveiled around the time of CWGT2 LeMans to prepare all the teams and participants for equipment changes. Returning to the schedule for season 3 was Spa-Francorchamps, restoring the CWGT endurance triple crown once more. Due to the influx of new virtual makes in virtual sports car racing, a Constructor's Championship was introduced, as was the patently ridiculous Firestone Wilderness Cup for tire manufacturers. Season 3 The introduction of the prototype formula led to the first true silly season in series history, with many ride and manufacturer switches occurring en masse. At the Crapwagon.com Racing Team (CWRT), TheStranger secured a virtual deal to become the factory Porsche outfit, and shuffled his lineup a bit: Caspar moved to the #75 when Hosehead amicably struck out on his own in the #3 Rothmans Canada Porsche, while thebigtymer also departed to run a single-car operation, the #65 EDS Chevrolet. TheStranger gained primary sponsorship from BP and Preston Henn's Swap Shop (after the Swap Shop team had run Cigar2 in a single-car effort in CWGT2), while Dan Belcher remained in Slim Jim colors. McB Racing - still a single-car entity in those early prototype days - continued to cycle through manufacturers, running both a Coca-Cola Porsche and an unsponsored burnt orange Mazda. In becoming the first true superteam in CWGT, Padremobile expanded massively in the offseason, acquiring the original ChampcarFanatics outfit and thus adding Stalker, mclark2112, and Meesh to the stable. Debuting for Padremobile as well were Arundo Donax, HotDaug, and Tiger911, with Padre and Doft continuing from past years. (Madre was originally entered at Louisville, but withdrew her entry to allow for garage space for what had become an 8-car outfit.) Crappysburg added a second car to its plate with the addition of rookie Lvess. Savage Media brought on another car too, the distinctively artsy livery sported by Sparky. Also expanding their operation that season was Elmo Experiments, who brought newcomer Boogie711 to the series - a driver who would be well-remembered long after this season, albeit not for anything (at the time) involving winning. Chief's departure from CWGT gave cartcanuck the opportunity to sign on board with John Player Special, in a Jaguar. Many debutantes saw the affordable prototypes as a chance to run one car and get into the fray: Mazatleco17, Disclaimer, Goobers, phoneguy, Sonic Enforcer, dsriggs, Brake Check, Mike123z, and most notably...future champion BooBoo. FCYTravis, who had been runner-up in both seasons 1 and 2 for GP Motorsports, became a one-car Dyson entry with the retirement of Greg Pizzo from virtual racing. With the extreme level of interest the new carshapes offered to the virtual public, CWGT now averaged 46 roster spots per event. A spotter's guide was made available here . CWGT3 Team Chart Teams are listed in order of when they first participated in the series. Sponsors are listed without specifying which events they ran on the car. Rookies are marked with '®'. Due to the inauguration of the Firestone Wilderness Cup, tire manufacturers are denoted for the first time. *CREP was a subsidiary of CWRT until the Season 5 merger of CWRT and d.tuned Events Race Results Selected Race Summaries Full Series Results Award Winners Category:Seasons